The Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Building Scalable Agentic Systems
Korey Stegared-Pace
Senior AI Cloud Advocate, Microsoft
Agent interoperability: the state-of-play
Agent interoperability: the state-of-play
Sockets/power outlets from around the world
1 Image Credit: Xstron
Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Universal open standard for connecting AI with data!
The MCP architecture
The MCP architecture
The MCP architecture
The MCP architecture
The MCP architecture
MCP servers
MCP servers
MCP servers
MCP servers
MCP
→ Standard for connecting AI and data
Dynamic tool discovery ("integrate once")
LLM-agnostic
Standardized security
No framework
→ Custom integrations for each data source
- Tools need to be statically coded
- Often refactoring needed for different LLMs
- Tool-specific keys and authentication mode
